My take, for what it's worth,
Entropy isn’t always the driver of physical change, sometimes it’s just a map.
Sometimes that map is highly isomorphic to the physical process, like in gas diffusion or smoke dispersion. In those cases, entropy doesn't just describe what happened, it predicts it. The microstates and the probabilities align tightly with what’s physically unfolding. Entropy is the engine.
But other times, like when ice melts, entropy is a summary, not a cause. The real drivers are bond energies and phase thresholds. Entropy increases, yes, but only because the system overcame physical constraints that entropy alone can’t explain. In this case, entropy is the receipt, not the mechanism.
So the key idea is this: entropy’s usefulness depends on how well it “sees” the real degrees of freedom that matter. When it aligns closely with the substrate, it feels like a law. When it doesn't, it’s more like coarse bookkeeping after the fact.
The second law of thermodynamics is most “real” when entropy is the process. Otherwise, it’s a statistical summary of deeper physical causes.
Entropy isn’t always the driver of physical change, sometimes it’s just a map.
Sometimes that map is highly isomorphic to the physical process, like in gas diffusion or smoke dispersion. In those cases, entropy doesn't just describe what happened, it predicts it. The microstates and the probabilities align tightly with what’s physically unfolding. Entropy is the engine.
But other times, like when ice melts, entropy is a summary, not a cause. The real drivers are bond energies and phase thresholds. Entropy increases, yes, but only because the system overcame physical constraints that entropy alone can’t explain. In this case, entropy is the receipt, not the mechanism.
So the key idea is this: entropy’s usefulness depends on how well it “sees” the real degrees of freedom that matter. When it aligns closely with the substrate, it feels like a law. When it doesn't, it’s more like coarse bookkeeping after the fact.
The second law of thermodynamics is most “real” when entropy is the process. Otherwise, it’s a statistical summary of deeper physical causes.